Written By Mer Santiago on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 | 10/02/2007

The controversial husband of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo is coming home today.The first gentleman quietly left the Philippines to Spain on the eve of the Senate inquiry on the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) project that was awarded to China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp.

On the following day, the son of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr testified before the Senate chamber that Mr. Arroyo bullied him into backing off from the NBN project to give way to the proposal of the ZTE Corp.FG Miguel Arroyo denied that he had a hand in the Philippine government's deal with China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp., which bagged the NBN project for $329.48-million.

He said he did not bully the son of Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr into backing off from the NBN project. "How can I tell somebody to back off If I don't even know him," Mr Arroyo told reporters at the airport.